The report (below) and short video, released in partnership with Brave New Foundation, reveal the extent of the Pentagon’s revolving door, in which retired high-ranking generals and admirals cash in on their years of military experience by taking lucrative jobs with the defense industry.

CREW's investigation found70 percent of the 108 three-and-four star generals and admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took jobs with defense contractors or consultants. In at least a few cases, these retirees have continued to advise the Department of Defense — all while on the payroll of the defense industry.

Key Findings:

Retired generals can make more than their yearly military pay by serving on corporate boards.

Contractors have increased spending on lobbying for 40 percent in the last five years.

The U.S. government paid the top five defense contractors $113 billion in 2011.

As of early 2012, 68 percent of lobbyists for the top five defense contractors had prior public sector experience.

Pentagon rules prohibiting the revolving door are riddled with loopholes.

Reader Comments (4)

Daily B I wish someone would write up a piece about what a stinking hypocrite the Bailed OUT CRONY CAPITALIST warren buffoon really is and what a scam his call for higher taxes is! Not only is he calling for higher taxes but not for closing the loopholes he uses and he has his nose in who should be treasury secretary. Note his call for higher taxesi wouldn't affect him one bit given he hides his bailed out billions in TAX EXEMPT FOUNDATIONS he even set up sweet deals for his kid's here's some links if anyone is up to writing a piece. You? Pitchfork - Cheyenne? Anyone?

D) He lies about his kids. He often says his kids will get basically nothing from him. He says, nobody should win the “genetic lottery”. In fact, there’s a notorious story where one of his daughters had to buy a necklace from Zales Jewelry (which Buffett owns) on a layaway plan.

Meanwhile, Buffett has given each of his kids a charitable foundation with billions each to manage. If a foundation has $3bb in it, then something like $90mm can go to salaries. I think his kids will do fine with that kind of money

A good chunk of his fortune is dependent on taxpayer largess. Were it not for government bailouts, for which Buffett lobbied hard, many of his company’s stock holdings would have been wiped out.

Berkshire Hathaway, in which Buffett owns 27 percent, according to a recent proxy filing, has more than $26 billion invested in eight financial companies that have received bailout money. The TARP at one point had nearly $100 billion invested in these companies and, according to new data released by Thomson Reuters, FDIC backs more than $130 billion of their debt.

To put that in perspective, 75 percent of the debt these companies have issued since late November has come with a federal guarantee.

Big deal, members of the Congress abd the various cabinet retire and do the same thing, there is a one year delay for the Congress members but there are lobbyist positions waiting. Who/s busier than Bill Clinton talking for dollars? And generals and admirals have had serious responsibilities, we know who they are and where they came from, none went from community organizer to their positions. This is just more of the Marxist policy of emasculating the military. Stalin just had them shot, Obama is doing it with a word.

Not surprising other than the scop of the greed constantly amazes me. Saw this today..

The military-industrial complex and their partners in the Congressional "drone caucus" are reaping big profits from machine warfare. The rapid increase in computing power at a reduced cost is making a full-spectrum drone surveillance and weapons grid a very real possibility.

Most disturbing is that this war-matrix is projected to have the capability to make decisions independent of human review